The Ship Model Forum

After the completion of my 1/400 1545 HMS Mary Rose ,

==> viewtopic.php?f=59&t=163736

.... my family were rather taken by the 'romance' of a sailing ship,
as opposed to the fierce and often grey ships that are my usual milieu...!

Sir Winston Churchill is a three-masted topsail schooner with two square sails and a large Bermudan rig mizzen, the idea being that experience of
every type of sail that could be set could be had.





The 135 ft long vessel was built by Richard Dunston of Hessle on the River Humber in 1965/66

In 1968 a sister ship, the Malcolm Miller was launched. Sir Winston Churchill differed from Malcolm Miller mainly in having rounded top cabin door midships, whereas those on the Malcolm Miller were square topped.
The Sir Winston Churchill was slightly lower at the stern -as when she was being built, the concrete ballast had run aft whilst pouring into the hull cavity...(!!)

This difference in trim can be clearly seen in most photographs of the two ships together.

In 1976, the vessel took part in a transatlantic Tall ships race to celebrate the Bicentenary of the United States Declaration of Independence.
The Japanese model company Imai manufactured 1/350 scale kits of the main participants of this parade of sail,
-including a not often seen kit of the Sir Winston Churchill, the subject of this build thread!

The vessel was sold by the Sail Training Trust in 2000, but continued operating as a sail-training ship , albeit with reduced capacity owned by an Isle of Man based comany.


In 2007 she underwent a major refit , and she now again in commission as a luxurious private Yacht under Greek flag ,
cruising the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas under charter .

The 40 year old Imai kit in outline is pretty good, alas much of the detail--whilst broadly correct is rather overscale , or in some cases useless


There are numerous small resolution images of the ship all over the internet--most of them distant views with unhelpful graininess/ lack of pixels
and not amazingly helpful for seeing detail .




Some candid photos posted in various threads on the net from people who sailed on the vessel give good view of much of the deck detail




By far the most useful source of images so far has been grabbing screenshot stills from old Pathe News- cine-reels


examples below




I have a 1/100 plan courtesy of David Carter, along with numerous views of various models-
-almost all of which conflict with photos of the real thing!

So as ever--I shall steam ahead and try and produce an accurate(ish) model.

The model....
============

The hull in outline scales well and looks pretty good!



Every hole on deck had to be plugged with styrene rod



I immediately started thinning down the vastly over-scale thickness of the topside bulwarks



along with the odd shaped and sized anchors



The cabins side parts which would also form the bulwarks of the central helms station cockpit
were vastly over-scale with clunky detail --so much so that the cabin doors in scale would not have had sufficient room to open !



Much scraping later, some new cabin sides in much thinner material,
some brass strip and copper wire and patience !





The pared down inner bulwarks on the hull sides were now not the smoothest of surfaces--and being white would show any undulation

I 'homogenised' the surface in readiness for white paint and detailing by using BECC self adhesive vinyl strip secured top and bottom with CA

( as opposed to thinner decal sriping, alas that media in this instance would be rather too more compliant to the uneven under surface )

and the excess cut away with a sharp blade






I wanted my model to be 'on the wind' with some heeling...

To achieve this , I added a rudimentary lower hull blank on the starboard side of thick styrene block strip





More updates once that has been sanded to shape...


JIM B

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

About par for the course for British workmanship at that time, I'd say

It'll be exciting follow this project of yours!

This should be good again!
Following with great interest...

Cheers,

Marijn

Hello Marjinn!

Good to 'read' you again- still busy with the music/ family/ work....( have you had anym modelmaking time? )


meanwhile, there is progress on SWC is afoot...
I sanded to shape the added section of the "underwater" on the starboard side which gives a reasonable amount of heel.





I turned my attention back to the deck and superstructure; in particular the skylight which had distinctive and large lifting lids
which had vertical safety bar grating on them

obliviously anything that I would make would be over-scale--but I also knew hat plain skylights would not do...

In my decal stash I had a piece of black 'grille' decal I bought in the late 1980's
--it must be 30 years or older-- made by a company called MABEX




I laid a strip of the decal into the skylight



and then made the frames by cutting up some model-Railway ladderstock ( oo - 4mm =1Foot - 1/76 )



when all married up it looked quite pleasing to the eye




I also needed to find some narrow round topped cabin doors with a porthole in then ..........==> x 6

I did not have any in 1/350- so ended up using some old PE ( l'Arsenal Liberty ship...)

I think these were fold up yokes..(?)
anyhow-
- the image below illustrated it better than any description !





I installed the deck- dribbling thin CA around the edges fwd to aft

-after further scraping to ensure I managed to get it down deeper in the hull recess aft

I added handrails along the cabin-sides made of sprue

overall it is looking ok so far



JB

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

Hello Jim!

Your making quick progress, and that's a clever solution for those skylights!

Life has been a bit busy indeed, with little modelling time. And with modelling less on my mind, I get on this great forum less frequently too unfortunately…
But things are getting a bit quieter nowadays, and I have a nice trip to one of the biggest international modelling show coming up (Moson), so I hope modelling will nestle itself comfortably in my brain again soon.

Cheers,

Marijn

This is going to be very interesting!

_________________
http://lsa-space.blogspot.com/

work has been steady-- interrupted by Easter, other peoples weddings and some fine weather...

enough procrastination for lack of tangible progress... I have done plenty of searching for and analysing/ evaluating images,
to the point at which I have to accept that I cannot make and/or add on all the detail of my findings-......but I shall try

When launched in 1966 Winston Churchill carried Ratsey and Lapthorn sails ( small red logo), a garish decor aft of the figurehead and silver painted railings around the cockpit helm deck and white anchor winch as distinguishing features



.... in the early 1970's --for only about 3 years (or so it seems) she also had a white boot-top; unusual to find a photo of that scheme


..... concurrently with the green coachroof and foredeck along with the Bruce Banks sails
( black double triangle logo) and the anchor winch was black and white railings





( by the mid 1980's the coachroof and foredeck were painted red- which I believe remained so until she was sold.



Having located the an approximate era and fit I liked best for visual interest
( also cross-referenced by the positions and types of life-raft canisters --both the shape and location varied quite considerably!! )

I drilled the mast positions all the way through the hull


and the drilled all the way through the baseplate to ensure that masts cannot ever move




...the model had the hull and underwater area painted and decal strip boot-top installed;



and the hull was installed into its paper and cocktail stick sea base

( as described here in detail ==> link ==> viewtopic.php?f=4&t=37223



I plan to depict her on a close reach with all plain fore-and-aft canvas set-- so she will have heel and be moving at quite a clip !

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

Mmm, I can already imagine how great she will look in full sail and with that tilt!

Cheers,

Marijn

On the subject of sailing.... we need masts.

The plastic masts, although showing some taper are both too fat, bendy and clunkily detailed--

The masts on the real thing were ( are ! --she is still sailing! ) silver anodised aluminium



The colour contrast of the ' modern ' aluminium masts and all the traditional square ( and tapered=> tricky to make) section booms and gaffs
( but 2 x round section square-sail yards ) in varnished timber ( pitchpine maybe?)

Even the spreaders of the shrouds on the masts were made of wood (!)
will create an interesting visual image on the completed model


my method of making tapered masts

-take some stainless steel welding rod, insert into chuck of mini drill
and locate in a tapered groove on the workbench ==> ( this prevents oscillation and possible centrifugal force spinning it out sideways,
, distorting the work-piece as well as being potentially rather dangerous!!!





Note that (these days ...-' nuff said!)
I have another shelf piece located above ,-to further inhibit the possibility of it flying out!

I spin at moderate speed and using a flat file grind away until a satisfactory shape has been achieved
maintaining slight compressional pressuer on the masts and the file--using the file flat on the grooved bench

in this instance--lacking an ' accurate ' plan ( The Billings plan is helpful, but alas does not match photos everywhere)
I am judging by photos relative sizes and what looks 'right'



Stainless steel being springy is more forgiving than brass--which can whip out at the slightest provocation!!
it does not take very long--and in this instance where we have very long tapered masts--as opposed to traditional
sailing ship masts where 3 or more sections are joined in a stepped stagger; - both wood and metal-

- there is no real alternative apart from making them yourself--as all commercially available tapered metal masts are much too short.

These masts being anodised aluminium the sliver colour works well too!- no paint, no tarnish !





The bowsprit was surprisingly chunky spar on the real thing--I used half a large 1/350 spar from Master models-
-with the tip removed.
It is a tiny bit under scale--but by the time it has had two coats of white paint it should be spot on.
Very important was to maintain a small bit of daylight underneath it
( I would have assumed they would have rested it on / strapped it to the bow for more support, but seems not! )





I started making all the swan-neck vents needed, these were made of copper wire



These were installed where appropriate using photos rather than the plans
Porthole surrounds were North Star PE (they were polished daily by the Sail-training students)



Adding all the small items, life rings ( WEM Koenig PE ) ( and their vexed cradles!!! ) as well as tiny handrails above the timber capping, builders brass plaque, making the binnacles and wheel pedestal, decal grating for helmsman, hatches and instrument boxes, and a multitude of other details took a surprisingly long time.







The life raft canisters were made of styrene rod--with ends belled using white glue, the bulwark braces all around the inside faces were made of white stretched-sprue attached with varnish

The anchor winch was fully scratchbuilt using cut-down 1/700 handrail to make the cable drum brakes





Making the belaying pin rails-for securing much of the running rigging
-to replace the vastly overscale plastic items was a game of trial and error,
of how to achieve a crisp repeatable effect without losing the will to live !

The final solution was simple ( ish ...) !

using old 1/350 handrail of correct spacing ( L'Arsenal liberty ship) and some elderly PE WEM Yagi ariels...

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

Nice use of existing materials to create something totally different. Your work is always inspirational, looking forward to seeing this progress.

_________________
Mark
Master Gunnery Sergeant USMC (Ret.)
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

On the bench:

1/200 USS Enterprise, CV-6

well.... I am back!


after a protracted and unscheduled 2 month break alas-
-enforced by

1) far too much 1/1 business work (!) ,
2) unusual hot ( for UK ) weather ( up to 32 deg C ) making the modelroom too hot to play in,

3) AND...most distractingly probably (!)
..... the return from the paint-shop of ...





my latest automotive mistress to the collection



( and driving at every opportunity !! )



make and install new interior, fettling and perfecting of course ....



With the car about finished,
my fingers were itching to get a move on with my model again !
===========================================================

The previously made belaying pin rails were painted and installed;



masts were installed and the slightly varied heights and rakes established.


I used a 'ruled line paper ' file saved of f the internet

-and then resized it so that the correct number of lines would correspond to
the ( in real life) 36" wide sailcloth panel seam lines of the sails ,

==> I double-checked the number of panels per sail from this useful back-lit photo


Firstly I made a ' scale size drawing ' of the sails and sail-plan--and compared the outline to a scaled side-on photo



I then made templates in paper and offered these up to the the model




The panel lines on almost all Traditional fore-and-aft rigged ) sails
are square @ 90 degrees to the leech ( aft unsupported edge )
-- in order that the yarns are stable and thereby the non-spar supported edges allows the least amount of stretch.




The head-sails and the topsails - being triangular, with the seams square to the leech
would have the potential problem of the cloth weave being diagonal to the edge(* the flexible direction in woven fabric)
and therby a very very stretchy 'foot' edge which would flutter and not hold the shape.

Before the advent of laminate fabrics and the load-directional cuts of modern (racing ) sails,
Sailmakers used to counter this potential problem when building triangular sails
by introducing a 'mitre' seam
-=> so that both the foot and the leech would have the panels laying square to the edges, thereby minimising stretch.

The (relatively modern- 1960's ) sail-plan of Sir Winston Churchill means that virtually all the sails have the panles to the mitre seam at a a near identical angle of incidence .

I made the mitre-cut panel paper blanks the 'non -digital' hard way; =-> by cutting 2 x pieces of lined paper, gluing them edge to edge, scanning and then printing the result.

The REALLY hard and very frustrating part of this process was trying to get my printer to print the image with the panel lines AND the mitre cut lines to be exactly concentric above each other ...on BOTH sides of the paper !!!!

Much frustration and un-printable language issued forth .... and an inordinate amount of paper was used to get 2 x usable sheets with it all the lines lying correctly.

I am sure a skilled digital operator could achieve this easily--alas not me...






making the very tiny ships bell fwd and aft was easy by comparison!




more soon

Jim Baumann

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

I truly admire your skills and sense for detail Jim.

_________________
A passion for modeling

Great work Jim!
I'm following your work on the sails with great interest! Thanks again for posting all the in-progress work; much appreciated!

Nice DS too by the way!

Cheers,

Marijn

One has to admire your aestethic taste in cars, if perhaps not your sense of practicality

I thought I could work in very small scales, you take it to another level.
Super work !

_________________
There are two ways of doing things, if you're not enjoying yourself, you're doing it wrong.

Willing to do Commissions, Wooden ships as well, building models for over 35 years.
Please respond to E-mail in Profile.

Hello Jim! Congrats for the DS, she's a beauty! Always a pleasure to follow these post, not just for modelling

_________________
http://lsa-space.blogspot.com/

Thank you for nice comments!
I am curently on holiday in Germany...



have done " theretical" modelling...

and have -in my mind-- solved some upcoming issues with the impending completion of the model !

will be back at workbench when I get back !

regards

JB

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

The problem with the sails got me a thinking....
This is only a suggestion as I have never tried it (but the temptation now exists), how about printing the pattern on white decal sheet as a mirrored pair and then using some kind of foil or other v. thin sheet of appropriate material as a base for the decals? Lining the lines up would be easy (well easier than trying to do double sided printing to line up exactly) but I wonder if it would then be too thick and/or too flimsy to implement?

[Sound of current work being scraped to one side of the workbench to enable the pursuit of whimsical experimentation]



OK, so it's rough as hell but took less than an hour from nothing whatsoever to those pictures (and no bad language). The overall height is about 2" (I used the 'A' sail from the kit as a guide). Nothing dried properly, nothing is cut exact or anything; and I didn't bother checking to see if the lines were going the right way..... Since I didn't have any white laser decal paper I used clear sheet and white paper soaked in CA as the base. The third image is with a LED torch shining from behind (if you couldn't already guess).

With more time I would paint and weather the paper before applying the decal, or get white laser paper, or use white inkjet paper, or, or, or - still have plenty of ideas about how to develop this further.

If interested, please PM me. Or just carry on doing the stunning job you are already doing.

hello Jim

It is always a pleasure to see your work And take a modeliing lesson
and good job on your "belle DS"
cheers
nicolas

_________________
https://ladiagonaledubosco.blogspot.fr/

Very nice subject. I am intrigued to see your solution to the sail-problem.